I’ve started reading a book about fashion since it’s not something I have a strong knowledge about. Alot of the clothes I have are more then a few years old, and I admit I didn’t give much thought into the textiles I drape myself in. I tended to purchase via impulse and disregard the possibility of a consequence. So learning about the culture of communication though cloth is fascinating. Especially so from a Sociological/Anthropological perspective.
so far some of my favorite excerpts are: “high fashion is a form of ugliness so unbearable that we are compelled to alter it every six months.” -Oscar Wilde.
“Clothes are in (a) sense definitively cultural objects closely bound up with shame, and their primary purpose is to conceal the organs of those functions (sexual intercourse, lactation, excretion) which have been deemed to degrade us by tying us too closely to a bestial nature. Clothes in short, serve us as a cardinal marker of the devide between ourselves and the rest of the animal world.” p. 17
Some of these ideas presented I had a conception and understanding of, but not to the extent of proliferation that this book demonstrates.To think I’m only 33 pages in! I get the feeling I’m going to learn alot, and that’s one of my favorite feelings.
The book is called Body Dressing, and is edited by Joanne Entwistle and Elizabeth Wilson.
